Means and method for refrigerating ice cream containers and the like



Aug. 23, 1932. DICKSQN 1,872,689

MEANS AND METHOD'FOR REFRIGERATING ICE CREAM CONTAINERS AND THE LIKE' Filed Aug. 15, 1931 Gear ejjzb'c/ksaiz/ Patented Aug. 23, 1932 v sms GEORGE E. DICKSOEY, 015 GHICAGQ, ILLINQIS, ASSIGNQR T0 GEORGE PEARSON AND LESLIE MUTEB, 0TH OF ('JHICAGO, ILLINOIS MEANS AND METHQD' FGR REFRIGERATING ICE CREAM CONTAINERS THE LIKE Application filed August 15, 1931. Serial No. 557,288.

The present invention has to do with an improved method of refrigerating shipping containers intended for use with erishable goods requiring artificial cooling or preservation.

At the present time, much ice cream, large quantities of fish, many berries, and other items of merchandise of a perishable nature,

, are shipped in insulating containers. These in from. the ice cream to supply the required re rigeration during transit. lhis, of course, is a very unsatisfactory method.

With the advent of the commercial production of solidified carbon dioxide, it has been usual to place in a shipping container a quantity of this solidified product, estimated as sufiicient to preserve the perishable item during the time that it is to be in transit. This practice has resulted in intense refrigeration for a small portion or part of the perishable article shipped relatively little refrigeration or no refrigeration whatever for the greater portion of the shipped article. The present invention has to do with an improved meme for refrigerating an article intended to be placed in transit; also, an improved means of supplying a refrigerant such as solidified carbon dioxide to a ship ping container and an improved method oi: preparing articles of in chandise oi a perishable character for shipment under re= oration. hese objects, and such other objects may hereinafter appear, are obtained by the new combination, unique construction, improved arrangement of the several elements which constitute the single apparatus illustrated in the accompanying drawing, which is one form which the invention may take and in which the figure is a schematic repre sentation of an apparatus whereby invention may be carried out, there being illustrated in said drawing, in sention, a shipping container and a head adapted to be used therewith, there being in the ship ing container an improved form of pac aged ice cream.

Like reference characters are used to designate similar parts in the drawing and in the description of the invention hereinafter given.

in the figure/the numeral 10 is used to designate an improved type of shipping container fully described in a co-pending appli cation for Letters Patent in the name of the present applicant. cover 11 which may be applied thereto and tied on in place when the containen shall have been refrigerated.

Within the shipping container 10 which has a vertically ribbed interior and bottom is ail-improved form of ice cream container 12 made of wood pulp and also forming the subject matter of an application for Letters Patent in the name of the present applicant.

In some other present forms of shipping containers, it is not unusual to refrigeram or pre-cool the shipping container before plac.

ing the goods to be shipped therein. Ln the present apparatus, this is unnecessary.

A shipping container 10 is placed in suitable positions, the cover 11 thereof removed, and a can of ice cream or the like 12, placed therein The container 10 should be under a head 13, which may be called an expansion chamber, or it should be moved into position thereunder. The head 13 has a constricted funnehshaped neck 14 depending into container 10.

it the closed end of the head 13 is a disc 15 through which projects the discharge end it of an expansion valve l7. lln juxtapo= sition to the expansion valve 1? is a control or needle'valve 18 and extending there from is a conduit or pipe or coil 19 in which may be disposed a gauge 20. The conduit 19 is secured to a gate or other valve 21, the latter being disposed upon a head 22 upon the At the side thereof is a end of gas cylinder 23. In place of the carbon dioxide under pressure may be sub! stituted. v

The gaseous carbon dioxide under pressure is allowed to escape through the conduit 19 5 under control. of the valve 18 and expansion valve 17, and is discharged into the head 13, under very high pressure. Under ideal circumstances, the pressure should approximate twenty-two hundred pounds to the square inch. The gaseous carbon dioxide immediately solidifies in the form of fine white flakes or crystals closely resembling snow, such crystals being readily compressed into cake form. Such solidified carbon dioxide escapes into the container 10 and fills the interstices and particularly the grooves in the corrugations intermediate the packing container and the material-holding container 12 which latter vessel is not a close fit in the container 10. Such snow travels along the corrugated sides of the container 12 downwardly in the s ace intermediate the container 12 and the s ipping container 10 to .form a layer of intensely cold refrigerant in solid form. When a volume of snow of the character described has formed in the head 13, the head is lifted out of position, leaving the 'snow upon the top of the container 12, and extending above the top edge of the shippin container 10. The snow is then compressed into position and solidity by any suitable means until its level is well below the top rim of the container 10, when the cover 11 for the container 10 is disposed thereover and tied into position. The gas re= leased b the evaporating solid carbon dioxide escapes between the cover 11 and the adjacent container Wall. I

The interior of the container 10 is thus thoroughly refrigerated. The shi ping container 10 is then ready to be place in transit thoroughly chilled and with a suficient amount of refrigeration disposed therein in convenient form and over the whole of the container.

GEORGE F. DIOKSON.

perishable to insure the preservation of the perishable goods over an extended period of time.

What I claim is new and I desire to procure by Letters Patent of the United States, is:

1. Means for refrigerating nested contain 

